Literary works are genres used in the works of literature to build up and convey the objectives of the writers. Without literary devices it will be impossible to convey the message in writing art. Employment of literary devices in art act as tools that the writer uses in grouping up ideas aimed at fulfilling the objective geared forward. Reading the works of literature goes past understanding the message.  It calls for criticism of the literary tools employed in the art.

Criticism is the process of evaluating the effectiveness of the literary materials used in art of literature but not correcting them. Criticism captures personal preferences as well as emotional responses after reading (Johns, 2005). Literary criticism is just reflecting on the effectiveness of the literary material. It is the informed response based on facts given after going through literary work. In giving the response, personal feelings are superimposed with identification of the literary forms and techniques, and critic of the ways the author uses them in developing literary work's objectives. The paper will give insight of the literary work written by Alice Walker.

Firstly, it will give the criticism approach used in carrying out the criticism and give insight of the reading process.

Criticism of Alice Walker's work

In analyzing the short story, I will use the formalist approach. As the name expounds, this approach looks at the form and development of the literary work (Van Gelder, 1982). I have taken into account the surrounding environment, the appearance of the woman, her importance, and the message she portrayed. This analysis takes into account identification of the literary forms and explanation of the role played by the said literary forms in building the response at the end.

The short story makes wide use of imagery. Imagery is literary device dealing with formation of images. The vivid appearance of the old woman leads to formation of images in the reader's mind. Personal and environmental appearance explains a lot to do with the social, economic, political, and religious dimensions of a human being. For one to feel for the characters in the story, their personal appearance preclude to what we expect of them.

The appearance of the woman as brought out in the short story gives insight of her age, religious background, and economic potential. Her skin and worn out appearance refills her needy circumstance. The appearance is developed to convey more that has to do with her position in the society. The images are building blocks of suspense in the reader's mind in trying to know what will happen next.

The development of the appearance later in the story brings out the issue of social stratification in places of worship. The paradox in form implies the opposite of what we expect of worshiping places. The woman is denied   entry to the church owing to her outlook. Social stigmatization on grounds of worth is refilled owing to the first impression we built of the woman.

Literary work is like a journey, reading different forms of literary works is like having different journeys. What is refilled in the short story takes the reader back to the beginning to have a look at the woman from the beginning. At the beginning, the way she is presented is humble forced by circumstance to live the kind of life she was living. To her Christianity was the only way to fair living.

The writer used a woman character and an old one of course to show the place of women in the society. Neglect of the old generation is brought out as the same is replicated in the contemporary society. The images of the confrontation by a young man in the church also refills that women have no leadership position in the church. The fellowship as expounded by the regular meetings of the church members is paradox for doing little in helping the woman. The appearance of the old woman in the church is an implication of how old the church version of doing things is prompting change to reflect the teachings of Jesus. The idea of black people along the road side also brings out racial segregation as they proofed helpless like in the third developing countries.

The literary work has the paper has analyzed it, gives insight of the dimensions of humanness as opposed to appearance. Literary work is a journey that one has to reflect on at the end. Reading the short story and reflecting on it, the appearance of the old woman and all those attached to her is a reflection of the community set up. It's interesting reading the story owing the well organization of literary devices.